Books › The Violin: A concise exposition of the general principles of construction.., 1871 › scan 62
Scan 62
The Violin: A concise exposition of the general principles of construction.., 1871
4 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1is 15 to 16½ times as great as in air, transversely it is much less, between 2 and 4, according as the fibres are wide or narrow; it never reaches 5. This difference of elasticity in two directions, at right angles, is again an advantage not found in homogeneous substances like glass and metals. This feeble power of propagation in a direction perpendicular to the fibres, determines greater contractions, dilations, and transversal deflections, which act upon the post with great energy, which would not be the case except for the fibrous nature of the substance.
3The deal owes to its fibrous structure other advantages which it is important to note. We have stated previously that the tables of a violin vibrated in the same manner as plates, and caused the formation of nodal lines exactly as surfaces put into vibration, so that the fibres appeared to play no particular part; nevertheless, it is not to be doubted that the fibres facilitate their being put into a state of vibration. We may conceive that, being disposed to vibrate in unison with the sounds produced, they enter immediately into vibration, and communicate the movement to the tables, just as the strings of a guitar, in unison with sounds produced in the same apartment, enter into vibration, and communicate their movement to the entire mass of the instrument. The fibrous nature of the deal appears then to play a very important part in the structure of the violin, and becomes a powerful motive to prefer it to any other substance. One can find in these facts the explanation of several phenomena connected with the human ear.
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